Homeownership

Sweat equity is the "sweat" homebuyers contribute in exchange for a safe, affordable home. Homebuyers must complete 200 hours of sweat equity prior to closing on their homes.

The wealth gap in the United States when analyzed by race is staggering.  The Economic Policy Institute concludes in their publication, The State of Working America, that two-thirds of a typical household’s wealth comes from housing equity.  Homeownership not only provides a family with a safe, stable, and secure place to live, but it is also the chief driver of wealth-building in our country.  Access to wealth and capital is the primary way to break the cycle of poverty.  Check out this graphic from the Economic Policy Institute.

Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about who buys Habitat homes.  Simply put, we evaluate applications for homeownership on three criteria:  1) need for housing 2) ability to pay and 3) willingness to partner.  This has been a good formula that has produced amazing results over Habitat’s 40 years.

Habitat homebuyers are people you see around you every day providing much needed services in the community—school bus drivers, sherrif’s deputies, CNAs, bank tellers, food service workers, taxi drivers.

Marquida always has been on the move. After growing up in a tiny Eastern North Carolina town, she moved to Raleigh to attend Peace College where she played basketball and participated in a Habitat mission trip. Following graduation, she married and was blessed with two beautiful, active daughters. Then she found herself a single mom.

Ever ambitious, Marquida continued to challenge herself to build a brighter future for her family. She worked at the Wake County jail and studied to advance her career, becoming a deputy with the Wake County Sheriff's Department in early 2016.

Carletha (right) and Amanda are spending this summer giving back by participating in Habitat Wake’s Summer of Service program. Carletha is a rising senior at Middle Creek High School. After graduation she plans to earn her EMT certification and attend nursing school. Amanda recently graduated from Wakefield High School and will attend Oakwood University in the fall to pursue a degree in nursing.

Never in a million years would I have thought that we would ever own our own home.  As a young girl I thought owning homes were for rich, well to do people, but I have come to find out that anyone can own a home.  Regardless of their current or past situation owning a home is a reality with perseverance and hard work.  Owning a home has impacted my family in a positive way!  We now have ample private and shared space, we are safe, and we have set an example for the rest of our family.

In a way, Gwen Reis has been building things her entire adult life. At age 20, she began building cars on an assembly line for a major automotive manufacturer in New York. She later moved to Atlanta with the company.

When Flora Mohammed’s husband left her, she didn’t know where to turn for help. Mohammed, who fled her native war-torn country of Sudan in 2011 to come to North Carolina, had five children, no job and limited English skills.

For a while, Mohammed and her children, ages 7 to 15, stayed with a friend in Cary. But they needed permanent housing, and Mohammed, 40, needed a source of income.

She’s come a long way since then.

The Kpa-Ksor family, who partnered with the Catholic Coalition and an anonymous donor to build and buy their home, were recently profiled in the Garner-Cleveland Record.  Thanks to the News & Observer's Jonathan Alexander for sharing the remarkable story of the Kpa-Ksor family!